Six Thoughts On Bernie 2020

Bernie Sanders has announced his 2020 Democratic primary run for president of the United States, to predictable sighs of relief from his supporters and equally predictable vitriolic shrieking from Democratic Party centrists. I’ve been asked by my readers to give some thoughts on the matter, so here they are in no particular order:

1. The DNC can still rig its primaries.

Hillary became our nominee fair and square, and she won more votes in the primary—and general—than her opponents.

It’s really weird how amid all the excited chattering about Bernie’s 2020 primary run, there’s been almost no discussion of the known fact that the Democratic Party’s primaries were rigged against Sanders in the last election, nor about the fact that nothing has been done to stop them from being rigged again.

It’s absolutely insane that this isn’t front and center in the conversation about Sanders’ candidacy, especially since it looks like Kamala Harris is the next Anointed Queen of the political/media class. If Sanders manages to win the primary it will be either because far too many people elevated him for the manipulators to successfully quash, or because the Democratic establishment is now satisfied that he doesn’t pose a threat to them.

2. Sanders would be better than Trump.

Trump Administration Threatens Families Of Venezuelan Military

"This would be the same John Bolton who once threatened to murder an international official’s children for obstructing his attempts to manufacture support for the Iraq invasion"https://t.co/C0eU97Kwd6

Sanders is probably the most likely candidate to beat Trump, and he would be a marked improvement, not that that’s a high bar. The only arguments to the contrary come from partisan “boo, socialism” right-wingers and Trump supporters who still believe he’s spreading world peace and fighting the Deep State. I personally find those arguments neither convincing nor interesting. Even on foreign policy, someone who opposed the Iraq invasion has better instincts than pretty much everyone in Trump’s cabinet, some of whom actively facilitated that very invasion, and indeed better instincts than Trump himself.

3. He would also be far from perfect.

I find myself unable to join in the jubilations over Bernie’s candidacy because of what I’ve learned and seen since the last election. Sanders not only refused to provide any pushback whatsoever against the DNC’s blatant subversion of the will of the people, but he actively fanned the flames of the establishment Russia hysteria which the Democratic Party used to completely kill the narrative about primary rigging. Contrary to the belief of some Bernie supporters I’ve spoken to, Sanders didn’t just pay lip service to some Russian interference once or twice and then change the subject back to healthcare and income inequality: he has gone full Rachel Maddow promoting the Russian collusion narrative many, many times. As we discussed recently, this baseless Russia hysteria that he has sold to American progressives will be used to attack him throughout the primary, and it will be partly his fault for promoting that narrative.

While Bernie might not start any new hot wars or engage in the kind of obscene regime change interventionism we’re seeing from Trump in Venezuela, under a President Sanders we can expect to see a continued escalation of the world-threatening cold war against Russia, continued starvation sanctions against nations which fail to comply with the demands of the US empire, continued military expansionism around the world, and very little pushback against the depraved agendas of military and intelligence agencies. We can expect to see him play right along with the establishment narrative if the political/media class decides that Assad is gassing civilians and needs a dose of Tomahawk missiles, and we can probably expect him to facilitate the persecution of Julian Assange as well.

4. I won’t object to his candidacy.

All that said, if Americans choose to uplift Sanders (and the DNC doesn’t thwart those attempts), I won’t raise my voice to object. As the citizenry of the nation with the most powerful military force in history, Americans are kept poor and propagandized to ensure the uninhibited movement of the power establishment which holds the gun. If Americans want to try and elect Sanders under some faint hope of maybe possibly getting to have healthcare or a $15 minimum wage someday, it’s not my place as an Australian to try and stop them.

Contrary to what a lot of my critics claim, I don’t just make it my business to write about all US politics; I actually have a strict code where I stay inside my sovereign boundaries and only comment on the aspects of the US government which directly or indirectly impact the rest of the world. Given how brutalized Americans are by their political system, I see it as outside my sovereign boundaries to do anything which undermines their attempts to elect a progressive leader. Once he’s in office I’ll be just as critical of his bad foreign policies as I am of the current White House occupant, but I won’t be one of those aggressively critical alternative media figures working to kill his support.

5. Your fantasy Bernie-Tulsi ticket isn’t going to happen.

A lot of my readers have been publicly fantasizing about the possibility of a Sanders-Gabbard ticket running against Trump, but there’s no way that happens. Gabbard has been far too disruptive to establishment war narratives, and thus has already been aggressively vetoed by the political/media class. US politicians can get away with disrupting establishment narratives a bit when it comes to domestic policy, but if you try it with foreign policy you’re immediately blacklisted. Sanders never makes moves that are that severely transgressive of establishment doctrine. If he becomes the nominee, he’ll pick someone safe like Elizabeth Warren or Keith Ellison.

6. Sanders is more interesting as a phenomenon than as a candidate.

Y’all don’t even know. Bernie has pissed me off a lot the last 2 yrs. I know most of what he did was strategy but we put our hearts into that revolution and it still hurt.

But listening this man who brought all of us together , including Nina and Tulsi, brought tears to my eyes.

Sanders will be one of the few candidates in the race who will be consistently promoting clear, specific progressive policies instead of wearing a plastic smile and reciting scripted talking points designed to offend the smallest number of people possible, but we’ve seen him do that already, probably in exactly the same way he’s going to do it this time around. What makes Sanders interesting is not Sanders himself, but the Sanders movement.

I personally do not believe that the establishment is afraid of Sanders. Sanders is just one man, and even if he really is hell bent on destroying the oligarchy and bringing power to the people, they can deal with just one man. What they truly fear is millions of people rising up in a populist movement to take power for themselves, and using every tool in their toolbox to make that happen. If millions of Americans can resist the attempts to manipulate and herd them in directions which pose no threat to the plutocracy and insist on economic and institutional justice to the same extent that the Yellow Vests in France are, for example, that would absolutely terrify our rulers.

And that’s what we can expect to be the area of narrative control emphasis with regard to Sanders’ campaign: not keeping Sanders from being elected, but keeping the public from developing a revolutionary spirit. An enthusiastic Sanders campaign will get the mass media manipulators working very hard to control the narrative and keep everyone herded into their lanes, and they often expose themselves for the malignant liars they are when they do that. Anything that causes the propagandists to lose control of the narrative is a good thing, and the Sanders campaign may do just that.

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historicus/March 3, 2019

Don’t forget that today’s Democratic primary system was rigged by the party establishment after the catastrophic loss of 1972. They’ve arranged the early primaries to make sure no “radical” candidate ever becomes the party standard bearer again. 18 out of the first 25 primary elections take place in traditionally reactionary states where hardly anyone to the left of Genghis Khan has a shot at winning.

Erelis/February 26, 2019

Great points. I would just add sort of a collary to point number one. Yes, the same people who cheated Bernie are still in power at both national and state levels.

The collary is maybe more a question. I am coming to believe that the _base_ of the democratic party is neocon in foreign policy and neoliberal in terms of predatory open markets. I used to think that the neoliberals illigetimately took over a party which was progressive.

People point to polls that democrats heavily favor Bernie’s policies. But when it comes to voting, they put back into power the Schumers and Fiensteins. They poll Left, but vote center/right. Which points to Bernie not having the votes to beat a candidate the base and establishment powers have chosen.

BEN PERKINS/February 26, 2019

sanders is a complete gutless hypocrite and why and how any of you waste more than a few sentences on him is astonishing. he wont win and is a joke. He is just not relevant… and if you think he is, you have no idea about big time politics.

Steven/February 27, 2019

BEN PERKINS/February 27, 2019

NOBODY ON THE LEFT. THEY WILL BE SLAUGHTERED.. BIGGEST WIN EVER IF THE MACHINES ARE NOT RIGGED . AND WE ALL KNOW THEY WILL BE. THE LEFT HAVE NOBODY. NOBODY AT ALL. NOT ONE WELL SPOKEN CHARISMATIC FIGURE.. NOT ONE. ITS HILARIOUS

F. Foundling/February 22, 2019

Re number 4 (sovereign boundaries), telling other people what you consider to be the right thing for them to do is not a violation of their sovereign boundaries. You are not forcing them to do anything, just expressing your opinion. Electing a left-wing candidate is a right and moral thing for Americans to do – Americans’ making sure that all of their fellow-citizens have affordable healthcare and education and a living wage are moral choices and there is nothing wrong with saying that. Every win for good in America is a win for good everywhere, ditto for evil. Everything America does sets an example for the world – for good and for evil – and the inequality among Americans feeds the plutocracy and its militaristic policies. . In general, re the national sovereignty of the US – the US itself has been turning the national sovereign boundaries and democratic self-government of other countries into a fiction for quite some time. Governments around the world obey the US automatically on most issues (cf. Snowden, Venezuela etc.). The US government has far more influence on the foreign policy of my own elected government than the people of my country does; thus, I know that whomever I vote for, any US voter has more influence on my government than I do. The US has made itself the capital of a de facto empire, and, should one acknowledge that fact, it would only be fair if the other subjects of the empire could influence its policies. If this situation persists and the tendency continues, we vassals might as well demand to be recognised as US territories and US voters, since the borders will only serve to maintain an additional inequality, not our freedom. Of course, even so, we would remain second- or third-class Americans for a long time. I hate this perspective deeply – just as I hate the fact that we already seem to be well on our way to becoming second- or third-class Americans culturally, anyway – and if this is the future, I would prefer not to live to see it, but the fact is that the Americanisation of the planet in every respect is advancing by the hour.

F. Foundling/February 22, 2019

S. Black/February 22, 2019

I am torn over how much support to give Bernie’s bid for the 2020 election. Three years ago I wanted him for president more than anything else in the world. I believed in him, volunteered for him, argued with his online detractors and gave his campaign more money than I could possibly afford.

He let me down horribly after the DNC convention, but I could have forgiven him if he hadn’t gone on to blame our national problems on newcomer Donald Trump and “Russia.” The Bernie I revered could not possibly have sunk to such cheapness and dishonesty.

Since he announced, his campaign has been demanding that I match my former impossible contribution level, and this morning he sent me an email that was entirely focused on Trump, replete with charges of racism and sexism, as if those were my primary motivators. (Maybe I should have Demexited.)

Yesterday I learned that Tulsi needs 65K individual, unique, donors to participate in the Democratic debates. One can satisfy this requirement with a one dollar donation, but I ended up signing on for a $20 monthly contribution. Anyone can send her a dollar here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/65k-feb

While reading Caitlin’s post and the comments here, and also while writing this comment, I realized that Tulsi is the only candidate who makes me want, really want, to vote in the Nov. 2020 election. She has the integrity I once thought I saw in Bernie.

S. Black/February 23, 2019

Lest current criticisms (including my own) of Bernie should ever, heaven forbid, increase the likelihood of a Kamala Harris, an Elizabeth Warren or a Joe Biden win of the Democratic primary, please understand that I and most others who felt burnt by Bernie would still prefer him over them by a wide, wide margin.

Paul/February 21, 2019

Sander is pro war. Sanders is pro zionist Apartheid. Sanders is part of the corporate elite that are manufacturing enemies to continue the rule of our corporate war machine. Sanders support the rascism of placing nuclear dumps on land occupied by poor, non-white communities. Sanders is the allowable dissent, just like Cortez. They will, in fact cave and the things they suggest are designed to distract us from more immediate and relevant action(s). From Counterpunch – … Sanders “hawkish” support of Clinton’s military actions in the 1999 Kosovo War caused one of his advisers to quit. When antiwar activists occupied Sanders’ office in 1999 because of that support of Clinton’s war policies, he had them arrested.” Sander voted to support George Bush’s war on Iraq (the one illegally done on lies and false pretenses!), as well as voted, with corporate Dems to support the war on terror (which is an unspecified, un-accountable illegal global war). Sanders is not a progressive. He is what our Military contractor owned system of complete media dominance claims is a progressive. What he will do is absolutely zero to actually make things better, the same as Cortez.

One thing that keeps happening is that these candidate liars all say what we want to hear, and touch on the things that need to happen. Then they will completely betray us, as they already have done. They would not even be in the running for such positions if they were in anyway, a true challenge to the absolute control of global war pigs who are currently destroying our world.

I too am a “Never Sanders” guy. . He was a sheepdog in 2016 and he’s a spoiler for 2020. He’ll split the progressive vote so that a Centrist wins the nomination. . @Caitlin For someone that warned us “You’re being played”, you’re being kinda easy on Sanders.

Stephen Sadd/February 21, 2019

Paul/February 21, 2019

someone who is an establishment journalist is not a whistleblower. She is a presstitute, and will continue to be one. The OVERWHELMING evidence of journalistic right wing leaning is, in fact more a factor of the ownership of our media. This has been accuratly documented in the book “The Media Monopoly”. Anyone who believes the complete b.s that journalists alleged liberal bias is either a right wing nutt, or doesn’t read books. The fantasy of alleged liberal journalistic content being the predominant source or our news is a statement that has been said over and over, in complete absence of any actual facts. IF journalists actually ARE of a liberal opinion, it is a surety that they will have trouble getting published. Case in point, if Seymour Hersh can’t get published here in the USA, we don’t have a liberal bias. people who propagate these lies are ignorant or paid to do so, just like this presstitute. it’s just more corporate lies being spread on a corporate information system.

Ishkabibble/February 24, 2019

Cliff Sommers/February 21, 2019

Most of us are waking up to the fact that capitalism is broken. Alas, we have been so thoroughly conditioned as a society to accept capitalism as the very meaning of Americanism that to question a system that profits few while humanity suffers is akin to kicking kittens. True enough, capitalism built up a flourishing middle-class in the past and makes it possible for me to write this article that is going to reach thousands of people before the day is over.

However, capitalism reached its tipping point in the 1980’s, imploded in 2008 and is now dragging the rest of us into the abyss. The vast majority of Americans are in financial binds or bound by indigence while a fraction of society are living like nobility. George Bush used to explain that his fiscal and monetary policies were trickle-down economics. He actually believed that if you give rich people enough money, the benefits would trickle down to the rest of society. Money has a way of inverting people’s souls and their conscience.

What we actually have is strangle-up economics; America is the largest pyramid scheme in the history of humanity. The bottom 90% are the base of the pyramid, the top 9% sit atop society and have escaped the gravitational pull of inflation, while the top 1% are the capstones who literally harvest humans as crops. What none of these bankrupt politicians and vacuous media personalities refuse to talk about is how the system of fractional reserve banking transfers wealth upward. In this dynamic, inflation is the new slave ship and debt is the 21st century form of enslavement.

Handing our power over to technocrats, politicians and bureaucrats and expecting them to do right by the people is the height of foolishness. John Dalberg-Acton once said “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. He was dead on accurate with his observation; there is nothing as corrosive as power that is consolidated by a few.

Let’s break some news here: America stopped being a Republic a long, long time ago. Federalists hijacked the experiment in self-governance and replaced it with an odious central government that is guarded jealously by two factions, Democrats and Republicans, and the media-politico complex who all work obsequiously for their corporate masters. As always, revolutions devolve into the same tyranny that gave birth to them.

The levies that inspired the American Revolution were downright quaint compared to the onerous taxes and fees that are bleeding the vast majority of Americans dry. Parenthetically, the casus belli for the revolution has been replaced with propaganda. Wouldn’t it be nice if all we had to worry about was the Stamp Act, the Sugar Act and the Tea Act. Instead we are being bludgeoned by the IRS—which is anti-Constitutional by the by—and forced to pay a third of our income in taxes while billionaires like Jeff Bezos game the system to pay nearly nothing and corporations like Amazon pay nada in tariffs. King George was a saint compared to the corporate-state boot that is stepping on our collective necks.

Socialism is not exempt from the axiom about revolutions returning to the womb they were born from. Communism, socialism, Marxism; all of them are based on the state being the caretaker of the people and the people being subservient to the government. Whereas the fatal flaw of capitalism is greed and self-service above the collective whole, socialism is equally flawed because it disincentivizes work.

There is a different path, one that does not go the way of socialism or capitalism. I hate to give a name to this alternative given that ideologies end up creating the very consolidated power that I just spoke against. But I guess if we must give this new option a name, let’s call it communalism. Communalism is what the founders of America had in mind when they tried to constrain the size of central governments and instead wanted to empower states and localities to govern themselves. Flawed people can come up with good ideas even if they excluded many from their ambitious goals for America.

This ideas of limited government and local governance have become radioactive after proponents of slavery rallied to the side of the confederacy. As soon as someone says “state’s right” is the minute they get mugged with accusations of being racist. Not here to defend all people who go around espousing states’ right however, it was only a generation ago that “black” folks were put through the hell of fire hoses and police dogs used by states’ rights proponents during the Civil Rights protest era. What many don’t see is that there are demagogues in the establishment who intentionally shred open the historical scars of racism and bigotry in order to make it impossible for the marginalized masses across the spectrum from forming a consensus.

Let’s get over labels and seek a common ground, how about we call it community empowerment. I can’t think of any person in the world who is against community empowerment. This is, after all, the same model that the Black Panther Party used to launch their initiative in the 1960s. Instead of depending on the federal government for help, they decided to help themselves. Contrary to popular opinion, what made the Black Panther Party powerful and targets of COINTELPRO was not their guns but their spoons. They were decimated by the FBI and various intel agencies because they threatened to make “black” communities throughout America self-sufficient.

After leaders like Fred Hampton and Huey Newton were assassinated and others like Angela Davis were sent into exile, the Federal government stepped into the vacuum and decided to “help” black people the same way the devil helped Eve and Adam—be leery when capitalists offer you assistance. One of these days, our children will look back and realize that Lyndon Banes Johnson’s “Great Society”was nothing more than a soft-extermination campaign. Instead of empowering disadvantaged people, he made them dependent on government. While I’m not advocating the end of welfare and social services at this moment—too many people would be hurt by that type of radical pullback—I just want people to know that these programs were not intended to help as much as they were meant to kneecap millions into reliance.

What LBJ did with a socialist program, Republicans likewise did with their embrace of strangle-up economics. There is not even a difference between the two parties these days, they diverge in their approach but in the end they both serve the same corporate masters. To this end, socialism and capitalism are nothing more than branding campaigns, the true powers are central bankers and corporations who dictate policies and legislation. Even in China and Russia—countries that pretend to be rooted in social capitalism—the people who reap the rewards are the uber rich while the rest are indentured into a lifetime of service for the corporate-state.

I don’t know when we will wake up to it, the planet has been turned into a giant web where the oligarch spiders entangle us with debt and turn us into their products. Capitalism and socialism are both under the umbrella of globalists who answer to invisible hands that remain hidden from public. On a regular basis, world leaders are summoned to Bilderberg Meetings and exclusive conferences in places like Davos and Riyad where they go to kiss the rings of their patrons. The idea of sovereignty in the 21st century is laughable; we are all assets on the balance sheets of central bankers. One day, we will become liabilities, watch out when that day arrives. There is only one way to overcome this paradigm of corporate totalitarianism, it’s through unity.

As long as we keep bowing before the rich and famous while disregarding our neighbors, what we will get are governments we deserve. No, the change we want will not come by way of Bernie Sanders, AOC, Trump or the next puppet they parade before us. Seriously, think about this for a moment, how do you start a revolution by meekly submitting to the same establishment you are supposed to revolt against? How about we stop waiting on change to come from the top and we become the change ourselves?

We don’t have to walk in the lanes drawn for us and insist on seeing the grandness of this world through binary lenses—we can blaze our own trails. Or we can keep chanting at rallies and continue believing that the same politicians who work for the status quo and are enriched through it will be our saviors. The bamboozling of 2008 and the fraudulence of our First Bank President was enough to shake many of us out of the cognitive dissonance that kept us wedded to one party and fixated on political personalities. Here is to hope that more people rebel against the duopoly and walk away from both parties, ideologies and imposed identities and build up our communities instead.

Certainly there will be some folks who will get caught up on terminologies and insist on arguing the specifics—in the process missing the forest for the branches. The basic premise of both socialism, capitalism and almost every ism is people outsourcing their power to a central state that functions to collect the means and resources of the people only to turn around and reallocate in pennies what they have taken in dollars. This is the deception of all federalized systems; whether the federation is grounded in socialism or capitalism makes no difference. What matters is that authorities in power are siphoning our wealth, skimming off the top, indenturing us into service and telling us what to do. Theory has a way of being aborted by the ego and arrogance of men.

As for Bernie Sanders, who announced his presidential bid Tuesday, it is truly sad seeing the opportunity he let slip away as the Democrat party repeatedly cheated him throughout their primaries. He allowed them to prevail by failing to challenge any of it, a taboo act within the Democrat party for which offenders get locked out of the party forever.

He had the name recognition and political capital to truly shake things up and run as a third party candidate, was even publicly invited to discuss doing so in partnership with Jill Stein who ran as the Green Party presidential candidate—even though he was effectively locked out of running an an independent by electoral rules guaranteed to prevent ballot access to any potential independent. Apparently, they learned their lesson after Ross Perot really shook things up in 1992 and 1996, both of which were among the strongest presidential showings by a third party or independent candidate in US history. Accordingly, the two main corporate parties were determined to prevent such from ever happening again so they got busy rigging the rules and erecting barriers aplenty to prevent it.

Even if he lost competing as a Green in a three way race, he could have paved the way for Americans to realize that our nation has been hijacked by these two equally malignant political party factions and their oligarch patrons. Fact is, Americans are effectively trapped between two corporate parties who offer voters no real choice by design. Whether you choose Candidate A or Candidate B, you still get another corporate pre-approved corporate servant either way.

Instead, he chose expediency and embraced ‘Dick Cheney in Pantsuits’, aka Hillary Clinton. It is said that there is no education in a second kick of a mule, Bernie is about to learn that lesson once Kamala Harris and the DNC donkeys give him a second shellacking. I’ll say it again and again, there is no changing the system from within, the system is the one that always changes people. The ego is a bedeviling friend.

Erik/February 22, 2019

Bernie is not going to be the nominee. The majority of his followers knows that he caved after saying he would keep fighting in 2016. Just replay that video of Hillary thanking him at the DNC. What a sad face. They broke him and most people know it. He is not a leader and won’t get the nomination in the USA. Plus, he’s a while male!

elkojohn/February 20, 2019

The whole U.S. political system is hopelessly corrupt. – At least in the good old days, the precinct captain could get your electricity turned back on, or your teenager a summer job. Now the pols won’t give you anything for your vote because they use rigged primaries, MSM to manufacture consent, and hackable voting machines win office. – Yellow Vesting – not voting . . . ”All we are asking” ”Is give leftys a chance”

Kerry Johnson/February 20, 2019

I don’t like to get very emotionally involved in electoral politics, as it is something of a circus-show, to distract us from working for the ‘real system-change’ that we need (echoing Zinn, here, in spirit). That being said, Bernie is the best candidate on the horizon, that I can see — head and shoulder above everyone else. There is a lot of legitimate carping and cynicism about Bernie, but the ‘issue’ is not the man, but the ‘message’. Bernie’s message builds on that of the Occupy Movement, and it still resonates greatly in the land. Bernie-the-man needs to be supported, in order to support Bernie-the-messenger. Of all of the candidates that I’ve seen in my life, Kucinich had the best, well-rounded message, but he lacked Bernie’s ‘fire’ to get people to support him. We all share a residency in a socio–political conundrum, and we need to look for ‘the best way forward’, FOR EVERYONE (without caving to our personal emotional reactivity). The folks who are strongly sociopathic (and ‘capable’, in their own ways) have already forged a fascist state-corporate weapon against us, and I don’t see much reason for hope. Bernie provides at least a faint ‘glimmer’, that I don’t get from any of the others. Thanks.

Orlando/February 20, 2019

Both Sanders and AOC, self proclaimed socialist, tout the Anglo-Zionist empire lies and are too timid to speak up for the sovereignty of Venezuela. “Social democratic “socialist” politicians such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders have been hostile to the socialist government of Venezuela.They have ignored the words of Jimmy Carter, who in 2012 said that Venezuela possessed the most democratic electoral system in the world. They have also ignored the fact that no amount of imperialist war-mongering can erase the gains that the poor have made in Latin America as a result of the Bolivarian movement in Venezuela, gains that extend beyond the “bread and butter” issues of poverty and into the realm of dignity obtained through worker control and democracy.” Of course, it is difficult to even consider this fact given the cacophonous anti-Maduro and anti-socialist banter of the corporate media. Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders won’t align with Venezuela out of fear of being labeled an “authoritarian” leader by the ruling elite.”https://www.blackagendareport.com/how-answer-trump-make-america-socialist-country

Orlando/February 21, 2019

DirtyHippies4567/February 20, 2019

I love Bernie! I truly appreciate Caitlyn and getting her views on things, especially when they differ from my own. I know we all suffer from cognitive dissonance and Bernie is definitely in my blind spot.

I know the undemocratic D-party establishment has rigged it already for Kamala. I know Bernie is old. I know that 2016 is on repeat. I know the reason for Super Delegates is to Prevent Democracy, and we still have them.

I know Tulsi Gabbard is hated by both Right Wing Pro War parties for opposing war.

And yet these two and a few others have forced the D-party to at least make mouth noises about important Progressive Policies like Universal Healthcare, Living Wages, Drug prices, and making pot legal countrywide.

Love them or hate them, pushing the conversation from the hard right to Left of Center has taken up Bernie’s time for the last 40 years.

gonna need a bigger lie/February 20, 2019

>> And yet these two and a few others have forced the D-party to at least make mouth noises

Aren’t you supposed to wait until after the DNC throws its primary before herding the disenfranchised back into the big tent? Are you just practicing? Or are you testing the water to see how people react to this vital talking point? Or is the “Democratic” Party illusion losing so much substance that you feel compelled to use this ammo now, to reinforce the illusion before it disappears?

Or, have I got you wrong? I doubt it, because the first goal of any progressive is to stop unnecessary wars — something you left off your list.

In case you’re just naive, Bernie’s primary contribution the past 40 years has been to play on the New Jersey Generals and lose methodically to the Harlem Globetrotters. He helped elect Trump. He’s helping destroy Venezuela. He’s helping the new McCarthyism. By staying silent on DNC rigging and promoting politics-as-usual, he’s covering it up. He’s part of the problem.

Feel free to share whether you spend any time working with a political advocacy group of any kind. As for me, I don’t.

steve/February 20, 2019

Nelson Wight/February 20, 2019

Phil Rockstroh/February 20, 2019

Hi Catlin. Hope you are well and staying health and inspired.

Sorry folks, but Comrade Bernie is the very embodiment of a sham socialists. Recently, for example, he refuse to stand with the poor of Venezuela against the unfolding US perpetrated coup d’etat being staged in the nation. Thus, yet again, he proved himself to be Regime Change Leftist. In short, a garden variety Liberal Class imperialist tool.

There is also this: In 2016, by his refusal to call out the Clinton Cartel and their toadies in the DNC on their primary and nomination process rigging machinations, Sanders revealed he was a sheep dog for the High Dollar owned and controlled Democratic Party, as time and time again (e.g., his parroting of the Washington Establishment “Russia Did It” yarn) he has also proven himself to be a work dog for the profiteers of US imperialism.

(His raving, Chavez was a ““dead communist dictator” should put to rest any misconception of Sanders’ honesty and his solidarity with the powerless of the earth.) (Moreover, both Chavez and Maduro gained office in elections far more honest than the exercises in fraudulence in which Sanders participates…thus, yet again, he revealed himself to be one of the fraudsters.)

Rather then entering the rigged, per always, Democratic Primary, Bernie should run (and yes, I realise, doing so is just not in his duopolist DNA) as an independent and rail against the capitalist/imperialist owned and operated duopolist sham of the system — or he should board the political express bus to STFUtown.

Nelson Wight/February 20, 2019

steve/February 20, 2019

LSJohn/February 22, 2019

” In 2016, by his refusal to call out the Clinton Cartel and their toadies in the DNC on their primary and nomination process rigging machinations, Sanders revealed he was a sheep dog for the High Dollar owned and controlled Democratic Party, as time and time again (e.g., his parroting of the Washington Establishment “Russia Did It” yarn) he has also proven himself to be a work dog for the profiteers of US imperialism.”

Rod Coombes/February 20, 2019

It is a known fact ( from the election hearings) that electronic voting machines can be both rigged, and completely undetectable.Word is that Soros’ company owns the machines.What ‘elections’? Just ‘selections’ of the richest donors.The elite do not like real politik, it gets in their way.

Rob/February 20, 2019

One important point that some people seem to be missing is that Bernie did not support Hillary in the general election because he liked her. No doubt he loathed her. Bernie supported Hillary, because he rightly feared Donald Trump as President. The fact that Hillary lost was the result of her own failings as a person and a candidate and as well as the failings of the U.S.’s presidential election system (i.e. the Electoral College).

What that means is that Bernie was willing to compromise his principles and support the lesser of two evils, an idea that is anathema to some people around here but which makes perfect sense for those who care more about consequences than ideological purity. It is important to recognize that there has never been a perfect candidate and there never will be, at least not one who has a chance in hell of winning the election. So, let’s deal with reality as it is, not how we wish it would be.

Rob/February 20, 2019

An abused spouse is not compelled to marry a worse bum down the street, whereas we citizens are stuck with whoever becomes President. If we cannot have someone who is ideal, the smart move is to settle for the one who will do the least damage and possibly some actual good. I realize that this line of thinking is difficult for those who see the world as black and white, when in reality, it is mostly shades of gray.

Ishkabibble/February 20, 2019

If Sanders had expressed outrage at his treatment by the DNC and Hitlery at the convention, his followers and many, many others in the D party would have IMO fully supported him in a declaration that he would run for president as an Independent. In that case, there would have been THREE, not two, candidates for president standing in front of the cameras during those pre-election debates and IMO Sanders would have “won” them all. .. IMO, Sanders would have defeated BOTH Hitlery and Agent Orange. And if he HAD become POTUS and attempted to fullfil his campaign promises to split up the TBTF banks, he would have had to endure the 24/7 abuse that Orange has, although, because Sanders is an Imperialist and firm believer in US Exceptionalism, he probably would not have been accused of being Putin’s puppet ……………unless he wanted to improve relations with Russia.

Orlando/February 20, 2019

“What that means is that Bernie was willing to compromise his principles and support the lesser of two evils, an idea that is anathema to some people around here but which makes perfect sense for those who care more about consequences than ideological purity.”

It is called standing up for what you believe in no matter win or lose thus your principles should never be compromisable it is the foundation of your beliefs and decision making process, those who compromise their principles are nothing more than easily manipulated tools.

It is because of people like Sanders who compromise on their principles that both parties are in unity when it comes to not only foreign policy but also almost identical domestic policy.

LSJohn/February 22, 2019

“It is called standing up for what you believe in no matter win or lose…”

There as time that a reasonable argument could be made in favor of “lesser of two evils” in voting (ethically wrong, IMO, but rational) but since the advent of electronic voting machines, the only possible value of your vote is the tiny message it sends.

Ishkabibble/February 20, 2019

I’m a dual Canadian/US citizen. I was born in 1950. I spent the first 3 years of my life in Canada; the next 34 in the NE US and the last 32 in western Canada, but during those last 32 I have carefully studied the goings on in the US. Therefore, I know a lot about both nations and feel absolutely free to criticize anything and anybody about both — especially candidates for public office who, after they attain office, are then referred to, only by themselves of course, as “public servants” . .. “Canada”, “Australia”, the “UK” and the “nations” of the EU have evolved into nothing but US vassal states. These vassals behave like the pilot fish you see swimming all around the huge white shark that is the US. So far, anyway, the vassals/fish have been satisfied to “pick up the scraps” from the US’s mandatory, perpetual USD-hegemony projects around the world — the latest being the “Global War on (oF) Terror”. For example, when, as George Bush II said “this sucker is going down” (“sucker” being the ancient/present whatever-you-want-to-call-it “system” — the one in which a microscopic percentage of the population owns or controls the vast amount of wealth and capital for their own astronomical profit– and “going down” meant that that ancient system was going to “fail” and that the Elite and their, up to that point, anyway, NOT too big to fail banks were about to fail and there would be, instead of astronomical profits, astronomical LOSSES), the Federal Reserve, supposedly on behalf of the present and future unborn taxpayers of the US, printed out of thin air hundreds of billions of USDs to “bail out” the Elite’s banks and their investments, both “at home” AND “abroad”, so that the Elite in the various vassal states could remain the Elite and CONTINUE this ancient, fatally flawed system we continue to live in today. .. This transnational Elite have been very grateful to the US Federal Reserve for their rescue and, through the O’bomb’em and Agent Orange administrations, up to this point, anyway, have dutifully obeyed whatever insane or downright crazy diktat the US has issued. The vassals’ recent rubber-stamping of Agent Orange’s coronation of his new Capo in Venezuela is but the latest example in a long line of examples. They know that if they “break ranks” with the Godfather in the White House in the Emerald City On the Hill, their Elite know that they’re not going to remain the Elite for much longer. They’re all going to sink or swim together, now. .. Now to “the Bern”. IMO Sanders is a white-skinned clone of O’bomb’em — the Nobel Peace Prize winner who, along with his sidekicks, Hitlery and Kerry, killed probably millions and caused a tidal wave of refugees and migrants into Turkey, Jordan and many EU nations, a tidal wave that has to this day not receded back into the “ocean” of the middle east. .. Sanders is an imperialist and a firm believer in US Exceptionalism. As Hedges has put it “you cannot be a socialist and an imperialist at the same time”. And therefore, Hedges did not and does not endorse Sanders. If he becomes president, IMO Sanders will break every promise he makes during the campaign (has he promised to close Gitmo yet?) and, again, become another O’bomb’em. Has Sanders promised to stop the so-called war on terror; to close several hundred overseas military bases; to reverse Orange’s regime-change operation in Venezuela?

nels.wight/February 20, 2019

Wonderfully spouted, I would have been born in the Maritimes if Webster-Ashburton had been more kind to the Commonwealth. And a Canadian for 52 years if Bennett (the elder) hadn’t been such a hardarse in B.C. in 1967.

Absolutely loved your comment and quibble with nothin’ you said at all! We’re about the same age and hail from the same neck o’ the northern woods too. Cd’A is ny hometown and where I spent most of my ill spent youth, eh?

Ishkabibble/February 20, 2019

nels.wight/February 20, 2019

safe as milk/February 20, 2019

no need to apologize for commenting on our politics, caitlin. hegemony is everybody’s business. as a regular working stiff, it’s so nice to get some confirmation bias from reading your articles. 😉

one point you didn’t cit specifically but is readily apparent from the other comments posted here, is that bernie’s time has passed. it’s unlikely, that he will build the momentum with the youth vote again.

tulsi is obviously the best candidate by far but most people here have never even heard of her. then again, as we all know, stanger things have happened.

inforebelscum/February 20, 2019

Sanders never introduced a bill to stop TPTB so he is hardly a voice speaking truth to power. Sanders is yesterday’s fraudulent man. Time for him to get off the public dole and retire into obscurity where he belongs.

Harry S Nydick/February 20, 2019

Actually, Caity, I want only to add, briefly, to your #1 above. And, this is just my own, original thought. In addition to all of the other things that elevated Trump as a candidate, there can be no doubt that the sheer number of Republican candidates diluted the support for any one of them until the time to choose had almost neared. In a similar vein, whether or not the entry to the race was actually orchestrated by the Democratic Party, the sheer number of candidates might well result in no individual candidate being chosen on the first ballot. And, per the change in rules, while superdelegates have no power during the first ballot, they do come into play, as in previous years, during the second and, if necessary, additional ballots. While the state Democratic Parties may continue their nullifying tricks, as in 2016, clearly the move to a second ballot would mean that the choice of a nominee could be rigged to occur as late as at the Democratic convention. All that would be needed would be to retain enough candidates such that the support is too widely spread for one ballot to suffice.

big dummy/February 20, 2019

Oh, lord. We are not going to make progress electing anyone with a “Democratic” or “Republican” label. Any (e.g., Tulsi) that seem appealing are used as tools to attract your attention and make you buy into the system. They good ones won’t win. And the ones that do win flip-flop on promises to everyone but the 1%.

I don’t know anything easy to suggest. But: – Don’t donate money or time to any politician that’s a member of a corrupt party. – Don’t subsidize propaganda. (Don’t subscribe to “newspapers”; don’t give pageviews to their websites. Don’t watch any tv “news”.) – Don’t waste time chatting with people about any of these politicians. If people ask you about the latest politician they saw on CNN, MSNBC, or Fox, tell them Wikileaks published proof there is no democracy because the system is rigged and no “candidate “ appears on those channels who isn’t there to sell us out or be used to sell us out. Do not try to convince people to support one candidate over another. Better, imo, to kill the false hope and unjustified faith people have in the system.

Chastity/February 20, 2019

If people show any interest in educating themselves, I share the link to this article by CJ Hopkins with them. Some will read it, but most will not. I’ve learned that many people here in the USA want to / choose to retreat back into denial. Some manage to raise their heads out of the sand, momentarily, but push it right back into the sand. They are dependent, in their minds, on this system, this status quo, for their paychecks and whatever sickcare insurance benefits they still have. I’ve blown the whistle at two career type jobs, but I was willing to pay the price (pushed out of the organizations: one school district and one appraisal district). I, however, decided to not have children or own a house or to be a willing consumer and support corporations, etc.

Revenge of Big Dummy/February 20, 2019

You’re right. Pretending that Bernie, or any other “liberal, progressive, democratic socialist,” or any other candidate presented to us by this hopelessly corrupt sham, is going to make any changes other than cosmetic and superficial is an exercise in magical thinking and sheer stupidity. Haven’t we seen this shitshow way too many times before?

jared/February 21, 2019

It good and understandable to criticize liberally where warranted. But then there is to propose an improvement or else there is no basis for the criticism – it is only complaining. As a starting point: – Vote – Vote for some whos not a prick. – Encourage others to vote. – Seek to educate – start with family. – Keep informed. – Read. Read to learn and to releive stress. – Share your thoughts. – Listen to others. – Set a good example for the young. – If there is a candidate that warrants it help that person.

Maxim Gorki/February 20, 2019

safe as milk/February 20, 2019

no, obama is cynical to the core. bernie has just been beaten down by the system and has learned to play ball but he actually is in this for the right reasons. obama on the other hand was a complete charlatan from day one.

Kim Dixon/February 20, 2019

Sanders stabbed his supporters in the heart. Not just once, but over and over. After the DNC stole the Primary, Sanders not only campaigned or Three Names, but went on to go on tour with that execrable toad Tom Perez, and then gave the DNC $100,000 of his own money.

Because, that’s how you deal with your mortal political enemies. /s

For the last year, Sanders has joined the DNC/Deep Strate in blaming HRC’s loss on the Russians. He continues to betray his followers, continues to damage the causes of populism and peace, and still, the True Believers believe.

Dave/February 20, 2019

Robyn/February 20, 2019

Disappointing Caitlin. As you point out, Bernie has fallen well short in many areas so how you can proclaim that you ‘won’t object to his candidacy’ is baffling. Maybe if, in the end, it’s between Bernie and Trump, Bernie might merit support. But the sane people of the world absolutely must object to his candidacy at this stage – we have to hold out hope for someone way better than Bernie.

norecovery/February 20, 2019

We the people cannot have nice things when all our resources go toward wars and interventions, which are the primary means to enrich the few. Bernie has shown little willingness to stop the wars, therefore his vision of socialism is stillborn.

Jeremy/February 20, 2019

Wear a Yellow Vest to Bernie rallies! Bring some extras to hand out. ———————– American elections are different from much of the world that has more advanced and evolved forms of democracy. The key difference is that in most of the world, voters can vote for someone closer to what they like and want, then the people they elect can go form coalitions to get a majority. In America, its the opposite. Voters have to form their coalition before they cast their vote. If they don’t form a winning coalition, then their vote is wasted. So, its up to the voters to try to form a coalition that can win. I don’t think Bernie is perfect. But he’s the best combination of what he believes and a coalition that can win. ———————— Bernie absolutely needs to find 500 people to run for Congress. The lesson of the Trump years is that an outsider who gets elected President without a majority in Congress is rather powerless. If the government is filled with officials who were appointed by Obama and Trump, and if Bernie only has the support in Congress of a small progressive caucus, then he won’t be able to do anything. This campaign has to be bigger than Bernie, because it needs to sweep a lot of pro-corporate Democrats out as well. To really have any chance of doing what Bernie wants to do, he has to go win a lot of Congressional primaries to get rid of the corporate Democrats in Congress. ————————— For the Many! Not the Few.

Julio Kaplan/February 20, 2019

RC-Garrs/February 20, 2019

Bernie is sn “also ran” now. He sold his supporters out in 2016. Why trust him a second time? He, in relinquishing his delegates to Hillary, allowed her to claim the popular vote. If not for that, her loss would have been more defined, IMO. Tulsi speaks truth to power. She’s worth supporting even if it means losing in 2020. The truth matters!

Joshua Liveright/February 20, 2019

Excellent cautionary opinion piece. Your final point resonates as what we truly need is a change agent for the younger citizens. There is more abundance of neuro-plasticity and a chance for greater transformative power. As for another of your bullet points regarding Gabbard, I agree and will add that it’s important she stays in the race and the debate as long as possible to counteract the centrist poison that seeps into our collective firing neurons. What’s becoming more apparent is an overall need for safety that overrides our nervous systems. This inherent function, as described by Dr. Stephen Porges in his Polyvagal Theory of how our autonomic nervous system works, potentially works hand in hand with the mind virus propaganda machine curated by those controlling the narrative. It’s our job to shake free of the false sense of threat and see more clearly where the danger truly lurks. Also, I might add an additional concern to your list, the makeup of a potential Sanders cabinet. That could be the biggest disappointment of all if his intention is to bridge the divide by playing in the sandbox if neoliberal politics.

LSJohn/February 20, 2019

For those inclined to support candidates financially I suggest supporting Gabbard to the full extent you’re able. The longer she stays in the race, the stronger the possibility that it will penetrate, hibernate and proliferate. :>)

jared/February 20, 2019

Gabbard is a test for america, are we ready for something else, something better. If not, so be it. Just wait.

She seems to not let herself be bound by the dog whistle type politics. Would like to see her voice some degree of support for enhance border security including physical barriers where they make sense. Break out of the restraints.

Caitlin, I think you’re missing the main point: the extraordinary effect that Bernie has had and continues to have on the American political conversation, especially among regular working people. He has earned an outsized, even unique level of trust by consistently choosing throughout his career to be on the side if the working people and act in our interests, and has given voice and form to our unspoken convictions.

Bernie has framed his main campaign issues as ones which challenge the “billionaire class” over control of the “social surplus”, and he points out how centrist Democrats can be radical only on issues that don’t cost the billionaires money. His raising the issue of corruption in the Democratic leadership, ever so gently, touched a raw nerve and triggered an earthquake from which they’re still reeling.

And here you have a self-avowed socialist winning every county in Kansas, every county in West Virginia, probably every state in the US if we’d had a fair process and a fair count! His main campaign issues, from Medicare for All to free college, expanding Social Security to massive infrastructure spending and making the super rich pay for it all were fringe positions in 2015; now they’re mainstream.

If you had told me in 2014 what the Democratic political discourse would look like today, I would have said you are dreaming; and Bernie’s campaign had everything to do with that!

Harry S Nydick/February 20, 2019

There’s much to dispute in your comment, but one thing is blatantly wrong. Sanders is a self avowed Democratic Socialist, not a socialist. And, he actually uses that term loosely, if you investigate all that he says. There is, however, quite a difference quite a significant difference between Democratic Socialism and pure socialism, which is has rarely occurred. Per Merriam Webster, ” In the many years since socialism entered English around 1830, it has acquired several different meanings. It refers to a system of social organization in which private property and the distribution of income are subject to social control, but the conception of that control has varied, and the term has been interpreted in widely diverging ways, ranging from statist to libertarian, from Marxist to liberal. In the modern era, “pure” socialism has been seen only rarely and usually briefly in a few Communist regimes. Far more common are systems of social democracy, now often referred to as democratic socialism, in which extensive state regulation, with limited state ownership, has been employed by democratically elected governments (as in Sweden and Denmark) in the belief that it produces a fair distribution of income without impairing economic growth.”

So, a socialist wants governmental control of everything, if not total ownership (which is more frequently found in communism). A Democratic Socialist wants somewhat less state control, but also geerally favors capitalism, though the latter may be somewhat controlled so that it is may not be possible (as it is in the U.S.) for executives and ownership to earn as much as thousands of times the hourly wage of that industry’s or company’s average worker.

The perception of those who oppose Sanders may inaccurately label him a socialist, having created the same negative aura around that word as it has pertaining to the word ‘liberal,’ and which position couldn’t be further from the truth. In other words, by definition, neither ‘socialism’ nor ‘liberal’ deserves the negative connotation that political enemies have attached to it. It is not unlike Caity’s use of the phrase, ‘He who controls the narrative controls the world.’ By having repeated the attacks on those terms so many and continued ties, far too many people have come to accept the aberration of their meanings to be the truth.

Bernie Sanders is useful as a controlled opposition candidate tool to allow dissatisfied party supporters a safe way to blow off steam, then be herded back into the party fold late in the game when it’s time to push the real corporate party candidate—probably Kamala Harris in 2020. That’s the assigned role of all party sheep herders, and it’s apparent Sanders has it yet again this time too.

If Sanders does not toe the Democrat party line they can ditch him anytime they want. Therefore if they tolerate him it is because he is carrying out the party agenda, pure and simple.

A review of how the DNC changed it’s rules to gain the upper hand against any actual insurgent candidate is revealed by the rule changes they made in preparation for the Dog ‘n Pony show primary season we’re now beginning.

jared/February 20, 2019

I think this would be called “damning with faint praise”. It’s one liberal interviewing another to set the other up to provide judgements about Tulsi’s prospective fitness as a candidate – I think they grudgingly agree to accept her as a candidate until further notice.

I don’t think it was so much Tulsi’s intent to support Berni’s platform as it was to say that he deserved to be treated fairly.

It looks to me like the blue team is getting ready to throw the election, because that is what their masters have suggested would be best for all concerned.

Don/February 20, 2019

As always, excellent take on the possibilities of what will happen concerning the Sanders campaign. Looking like it will be a replay of 2016 for the DNC, with Harris the anointed one, but Bernie’s popularity and core support cannot be ignored this time around. My guess is they might just have to concede and appear like they are rallying behind him, but without a doubt there will be a price he will have to pay. They’ll allow him a watered down version of Med for all, a few tidbits of New Deal policies, but for sure the foreign policy will remain in control of the MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX.

Charles Robinson/February 20, 2019

Never Sanders due to he didn’t fight Hillary stealing the election from him. Bernie like Hillary is out to pasture, moldy history. And forget Bernie and Gabbard. But now Gabbard and Dennis Kuscinish ([Sp?] it is hard to spell his last name) now that would be powerful ticket to launch a new movement for the return to peace and upholding US constitutional law. Unrealistic you say? When the time is right, the right character(s) is/are able to move mountains. Tulsi G and Dennis K for 2020 ticket! But then again, the DNC probably won’t let them in. After all, the US elections/electorial process is a racket.

Sanders has another group of detractors not mentioned, like myself, who advocate actual socialism – not the bandaide on failing late stage capitalism that so-called deomocratic socialism is. His policy platform is really just New Deal liberalism, not socialism at all.

We see any form of capitalism as the root cause of most socio-economic problems and more radical changes than Sanders and his ilk offer as the only viable solution to the civilizational crisis we now face. See, forexampke Ranier Sgea’s articke published by Medium entitked “Six Reasons Why Destroying Capitalism Is The Only Solution To Our Crisis”.

We also refuse to have anything whatsoever to do with the ultra-corrupt Dinosaur Party and Sanders’ decision to join it as a fundamental violation of the core principal of independent working-class political action.

Julio Kaplan/February 20, 2019

Excellent post. I’ve been a Bernie supporter from before the campaign, made calls and knocked on doors for him in 2016, and may well do it again. But you have expressed very clearly the hesitations I have about him, and how and why they have grown in the last two years, especially on foreign policy.

You perhaps don’t give him enough credit for the way he’s changed the dicsussion here, restoring our ability and our vocabulary to discuss and criticize the sorry state of our corporatist culture. That has been a huge contribution.

Linda D Gentsch/February 20, 2019

They are afraid of Tulsi for the reasons you stated. They are also afraid of the Yellow Vests and the strike of 70,000 workers in Mexico on our border that are appealing for solidarity with the workers, especially auto workers, in the USA and Canada. Really excellent piece on this on Jimmy Dore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY4E1GLf9Wo .

Worldwide worker revolution.. That’s what they are really afraid of and why we don’t see it on MSM.

It’s terribly tempting to want to feed the hungry proletariat the meal they desire. But each of those comics you mention have all made me laugh hard. Much of late night comedy now sadly is remarkably interchangeable. Don’t despair https://t.co/MePoHPzcJq

@RobSchneider This is exactly why I reserve a special hatred for comedians like Bill Maher, Steve Colbert, Samantha Bee and Trevor Noah who sell their talent to the churning out of propaganda for establishment power structures. https://t.co/vTVPNe3kU8

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Excerpt from "Mainstream 'Centrists' Pose The Greatest Ideological Threat To Us All":

People like Ashton Kutcher imagine that the so-called “center” is called that because it sits smack dab in the middle of the ideological spectrum between communism and fascism, right in that moderate sweet spot that respects capitalism and private ownership without flying off the deep end into Nazi-like tyranny. In reality, the status quo exists entirely outside any left-right paradigm. It’s neither “left” nor “right” to give total control of the western world to an alliance of plutocrats and opaque government agencies who seek to expand their power and wealth by destroying our ecosystem, waging endless wars, and gradually shoring up more and more control of their citizenry via internet censorship, surveillance and police militarization. It’s just crazy.

I’m picking on Ashton not because he occupies some special place in all this, but because he doesn’t. He’s just an illustration of how blind people have become to the real threat that’s right in front of them, and how normalized insanity has become.

People who identify as “left” see the ruling power establishment as right-wing, people who identify as “right” see the ruling power establishment as left-wing, and people who identify as “center” see themselves as moderates whose normal, healthy way of life is under threat by the “far right” and “far left”. But really all that’s happening is a few assholes fucking over everyone else, which is no more “left” or “right” than a terrorist attack. The left versus right argument doesn’t even make sense until this far more pressing issue has been resolved. A Bernie supporter and a Trump supporter are arguing about left versus right while trapped in a room with a tiger who’s eating them both alive.

Excerpt from "Mainstream 'Centrists' Pose The Greatest Ideological Threat To Us All":

People like Ashton Kutcher imagine that the so-called “center” is called that because it sits smack dab in the middle of the ideological spectrum between communism and fascism, right in that moderate sweet spot that respects capitalism and private ownership without flying off the deep end into Nazi-like tyranny. In reality, the status quo exists entirely outside any left-right paradigm. It’s neither “left” nor “right” to give total control of the western world to an alliance of plutocrats and opaque government agencies who seek to expand their power and wealth by destroying our ecosystem, waging endless wars, and gradually shoring up more and more control of their citizenry via internet censorship, surveillance and police militarization. It’s just crazy.

I’m picking on Ashton not because he occupies some special place in all this, but because he doesn’t. He’s just an illustration of how blind people have become to the real threat that’s right in front of them, and how normalized insanity has become.

People who identify as “left” see the ruling power establishment as right-wing, people who identify as “right” see the ruling power establishment as left-wing, and people who identify as “center” see themselves as moderates whose normal, healthy way of life is under threat by the “far right” and “far left”. But really all that’s happening is a few assholes fucking over everyone else, which is no more “left” or “right” than a terrorist attack. The left versus right argument doesn’t even make sense until this far more pressing issue has been resolved. A Bernie supporter and a Trump supporter are arguing about left versus right while trapped in a room with a tiger who’s eating them both alive.

Excerpt from "Mainstream 'Centrists' Pose The Greatest Ideological Threat To Us All":

If people could wake up one morning and suddenly see what the ruling power establishment is doing to them every single day, there’d suddenly be vastly more outrage directed at the so-called “centrists”, and a lot less focus on politically impotent fringe organization like white nationalists and Antifa. This is not to say that all fringe ideologies are harmless, just that none of them pose anywhere near the immediate existential threat that is posed by the current order.

There’s an old joke: A duck swims past two fish and calls down, “Hey fellas! How’s the water?” The fish look at each other for a minute and then one of them asks, “What the hell is water?”

People don’t see the dangers of mainstream “centrism” for the same reason fish don’t see water. In reality, the only reason such an ideology gets labeled “centrism” at all is because it has been normalized and made mainstream by generations of plutocratic media propaganda. The ideological group which supports the status quo omnicidal, ecocidal oppression machine by giving you a choice between two warmongering oligarchic parties in fake elections that never make any difference is nowhere near a politically moderate position by any stretch of the imagination.

Excerpt from "Mainstream 'Centrists' Pose The Greatest Ideological Threat To Us All":

If people could wake up one morning and suddenly see what the ruling power establishment is doing to them every single day, there’d suddenly be vastly more outrage directed at the so-called “centrists”, and a lot less focus on politically impotent fringe organization like white nationalists and Antifa. This is not to say that all fringe ideologies are harmless, just that none of them pose anywhere near the immediate existential threat that is posed by the current order.

There’s an old joke: A duck swims past two fish and calls down, “Hey fellas! How’s the water?” The fish look at each other for a minute and then one of them asks, “What the hell is water?”

People don’t see the dangers of mainstream “centrism” for the same reason fish don’t see water. In reality, the only reason such an ideology gets labeled “centrism” at all is because it has been normalized and made mainstream by generations of plutocratic media propaganda. The ideological group which supports the status quo omnicidal, ecocidal oppression machine by giving you a choice between two warmongering oligarchic parties in fake elections that never make any difference is nowhere near a politically moderate position by any stretch of the imagination.